Littlewoods taking away the magic of Christmas for our children

[1belfastmum]

On 1st of November I watched in disbelief at the new ad for Littlewoods.com this Christmas. If you havent seen it have a look at it and imagine your 7 year old standing beside you!
The advertisement is communicating that the children have now discovered that mum has bought all the gifts!!
They are making an announcement as they appear out from behind the curtains!
Beginning the song with " who bought the XBox" "mother did" quite clearly is stating that the toys under the tree are not from Santa.

I have been in contact with my local television and radio stations. They have indicated that the ad is scheduled to be broadcast at non specific times over the next few weeks. This even includes Sat morning at 10am!

I am seeking to have this advertisement withdrawn, significantly edited or at the very least broadcast on both radio and TV after the watershed times.

Am I being unreasonable? Life is hard enough without taking away every morsel of magic, mystery and fun for our children also.

yabu
santa isn't real.....
as you say life is hard enough without bothering about stuff like this

It is very easy to let children appreciate that their parents bought the presents, but Santa delivered them. None of the magic of Christmas is lost at all.

A 7 year old is old enough to know that Mum and Dad are the ones who actually buy the presents, and not think everything comes free via Father Christmas.

YABU.

Well if parents stuck to the same Santa story it wouldn't be a problem.

All presents under the tree are from whoever it says on the gift tag

All presents in the Santa sack are from Santa himself...FACT!

I really don't get the idea that Christmas can only be magical if children believe in Santa. The problem I have with all these adverts is that they result in pestering for all this crap these toys. But then again, I don't really have this problem because my children don't watch commercial television and therefore don't see these adverts.

The advert is communicating the fact that the Mums have bought Christmas presents. In some houses FC brings the presents in the stockings, in some houses he brings the presents under the tree, in some houses he brings all the presents and in some houses he doesn't bring any of the presents.

Turn the telly off. Easy.

I don't like it either, but more because the whole thing sound like 'we love mum because she spends a shitload of money on us'. Irritating.

Are you for real??

Do you think it comes as a surprise to children that people buy presents?

I'm sure you have the wit to think up a believable story for your DC? Children want to believe - and they will if you make it possible for them.

I don't like the advert as all as it makes it seem normal to get expensive electronic things from Mum, and not nice less expensive things from Father Christmas.

You'vre contacted the radio and tv stations? You're seeking to have the ad withdrawn?!!!

Maybe you should......you know....get out of the house for a bit

My DDs were always told that they couldn't ask Santa for the whole toy shop because he sent the bill to Mummy

Don't you get your kids presents from you then, or do they only get gifts from santa then?

Bit tight of you if you just leave it all up to the big guy isn't it?

Hmm we tackled this one when our were five, and told them that when you are very little FC brings everything (as Grandma had convinced them of this already) but when you are over 5, the people you love buy you gifts and then FC brings you something extra to leave in your stocking. (FC can also leave a note for them to back you up, reminding them that he knows they are 5, and hoping that they enjoyed the special gift he had chosen!) Otherwise how do the kids write thankyou letters, if they think that FC brings everything to them?

But if you really want your kids to believe that FC delivers all of their gifts, then why not say that he does but that people - like the lady in the advert - are allowed to buy and wrap stuff too, and sneak it in under the tree, to make people happy. Then your kids could join in and buy things too, wrap them and add them to the pile for people in the house . . .

Well I don't thihnk UABU. I think Christmas is spoiled by all the bloody adverts.

Santa's the delivery agent and keeper of the nice/naughty list. Mums and Dads buy the presents, send them to Santa and he releases them according to how nice/naughty you've been.

He's like the Paypal of prezzies basically.

Oh and all the other Santas you see dressed up and on every telly programme from about October onwards - he's very very busy so he subcontracts out to mini-Santas.

And in the event of having a house without a chimney he uses the back door.

Gotta love the way my mother had it all worked out to counteract two very smart-arse kids!

And yep, you're being utterly ridiculous wanting an advert withdrawn on the basis of it disagreeing with your personal family Christmas explanations.

at dejawho - i came up with exactly the same explanation for ds1 re santa being the 'paypal of prezzies', and the subcontracting to santa clones...

YABU I agree with seven

OP i do agree with you a teeny tiny bit.

But there's lots of things out there to spoil Christmas magic, so the best is have a Christmas Legend ready to explain away all the little inconsistencies that might come up.

Or you could boycott them.

I fear that the OP may have rather too much time to fill. Only whilst I object to the idea that the "magic of Christmas" can only be fulfilled by the acquisition of very expensive stuff, there are many creative ways to handle the Santa Question. All of which are down to parents, not advertisers so expecting a major ad campaign to be pulled because it doesn't suit the way the OP handles Christmas is U in the extreme.

I tended to find that when children were young enough to believe in Santa Claus then they continued to hold that belief, regardless of crap adverts or the appearance of not tremendously well disguised grandpas at the playgroup Christmas Party. Once cynicism a creeping sense of disbelief started to creep in, you could easily create perfectly reasonable Santa myths. In our house, he brought the stuff that appeared at the end of your bed in a pillowcase on Christmas morning. All other presents came from real people. I also have no doubt that my dcs stopped believing in Santa long before they admitted this upfront. Which also isn't the world's greatest tragedy.

Oh, I get where you are coming from, but do think that you need to work on a good excuse.

And accept the fact that your 7yo will probably not believe in Santa much longer. I am sure that my DD suspects, but she has not said anything.

If it is THAT important OP - only let her watch BBC channels

My 3yo heard the Littlewoods advert on the radio yesterday and after it had finished with the lines 'My lovely lovely mother.....' he paused and then said 'MuuUUUM....you're MY lovely mummy!' which filled my heart with joy - so for that....YABU!